Competitors from 13 countries have progressed to the Second Round, and will therefore be performing at the Finals in Leeds and Bradford from 11-21 September 2024
The Leeds International Piano Competition has announced the 24 pianists who have made it through to the Second Round of the competition.
Selected from a pool of outstanding 20-29-year-old talents from all over the world who took part in the First Round across six global centres last month, these pianists now vie for top honours in Leeds in September 2024. This marks their chance to have a transformative and enriching experience in Leeds and the opportunity to win one of the most prestigious prizes in music.
Nine (38%) of the finalists are women, an increase from the First Round where women made up 31% of competitors. This partially reflects new measures introduced by The Leeds to help address the issues of gender balance in the piano world, including blind judging in the shortlisting process and unconscious-bias training for the jury.
The 24 pianists are:
Kai-Min Chang, 23, Taiwan
Xuehong Chen, 24, China
Junyan Chen, 23, China
Woo Young Cho, 23, South Korea
Dina Ivanova, 29, Russia
Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, 24, Canada
Carter Johnson, 27, Canada
Elizaveta Kliuchereva, 24, Russia
Shinyoung Lee, 26, South Korea
Pedro López Salas, 26, Spain
Khanh Nhi Luong, 27, Vietnam
Philipp Lynov, 25, Russia
Nicholas Margarit, 24, Australia
Nagino Maruyama, 24, Japan
Callum McLachlan Page, 25, UK
Jan Nikovich, 22, Croatia
Tianlin Shen, 25, China
Shunshun Tie, 23, China
Tomoharu Ushida, 24, Japan
Gabriel Yeo, 25, Germany
Sung Ho Yoo, 27, South Korea
Tiankai Yu, 24, China
Angie Zhang, 28, America
Ryan Zhu 20, Canada
Fiona Sinclair, CEO of The Leeds, comments: “We’re thrilled to announce the 24 pianists that will compete in the next round of the 2024 Competition, and we can’t wait to welcome them all to Leeds to perform. I’m particularly delighted to see we have a strong proportion of women going through, a testament to the measures we’ve put in place this year. I wish all the competitors the best of luck and look forward to seeing them in Leeds!”
For the first time, the Finals of the competition will relocate outside the city due to renovations at the Leeds Town Hall. The host venue for the Finals will be the historic St George’s Hall in Bradford, known for its excellent ‘shoebox’ acoustic. This relocation coincides with Bradford's status as the 'UK City of Culture in 2025,' and the Competition provides an opportunity to share music made in Leeds and Bradford with a global audience of millions through multiple streaming services including medici.tv and the BBC.
Tickets for the Second Round, Semi-Finals and Finals are available on the Leeds International Piano Competition website.